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Art in Crossett Library: Tony Smith

This is a guide to works of art on display in Crossett Library.

Location - Crossett Library Main Level Oceana Wilson's Office

Tony Smith

Information

Tony Smith

American, 1912–1980

 

Black and White, White Circle

oil on canvas

30 x 24 in.

PAI.74

 

Untitled

1962

acrylic on a two part canvas

44.5 x 28 in.

PAI.72

 

Anonymous Gift

 

Tony Smith studied painting at the Art Students League, New York (1934–36) and attended the New Bauhaus, Chicago (1937–38), before apprenticing with Frank Lloyd Wright (1938–39). For the following two decades, he worked professionally as an architect and held teaching positions at numerous institutions.  He was a Bennington College Visual Arts faculty member, 1958-61 and member of the faculty library committee.  In the early 1960s, Smith turned his focus to sculpture, with his architectural background informing one of his most radical innovations—having his work industrially fabricated. Widely recognized for his large-scale, modular works produced throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Smith was included in the seminal group exhibition Primary Structures at the Jewish Museum, New York, in 1966. There have been retrospectives of his work at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1998); Institut Valencià d’Art Modern (2002); and Menil Collection, Houston (2010).

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